


One Minute

by komkommertijd



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: A lot of Numbers I'm sorry, Car Accidents, Character Death, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24470497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/komkommertijd/pseuds/komkommertijd
Summary: 120,000,000 new red blood cells form in his body, he breathes 20 times, 6,000,000 chemical reactions take place in every cell of his body, he has a million thoughts running through his head that are immediately gone once he rounds the next corner, all in the matter of a single minute.But what can happen in a minute anyway?
Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen
Comments: 9
Kudos: 66





	One Minute

**Author's Note:**

> I've never really written anything like this before (at least not with this kind of ending) so I apologize if it's not all that good yet, I'm still working on that. It's a pretty unusual topic for me to write about but I had an idea and just felt like writing this.
> 
> The initial idea and the title come from [One Minute (Eine Minute)](https://open.spotify.com/track/3Tvl4fK2SEGBPF8zYVBqyP?si=L3fzx9OkRD-dC4HsT7vRIQ) by Fynn Kliemann and the numbers in here are mainly from sources on the web, so I can't guarantee that they're all correct - some things are hard to count anyway.
> 
> Please keep in mind that English is still not my first language and therefore I might make some unusual mistakes, just ignore them if they're not severe. I hope you will enjoy this (as far as it is enjoyable anyway), thank you so much for reading :)
> 
> Should you want to complain about anything or just talk to my lonely self, you can find me on [Tumblr](https://komkommertijd.tumblr.com/).

One minute.

What can happen in one minute?

58 airplanes take off around the world. 25 US citizens get a passport. 144 people move into a new home.

One minute is a weird amount of time, too little to do anything with it but enough to read the title of an article or to put the next book on your reading list. One minute is enough for a toddler to take their first steps, for couples to break up, for someone to get diagnosed with an incurable disease.

60 seconds, gone by in 15 to 20 blinks of an average person’s eye. One minute is enough time to change the entire world for Daniel.

116 people get married, 83,300 people have sex, 7,150,000,000 human hearts beat 500,500,000,000 times – Daniel’s breaks in the matter of seconds.

No one pays attention to every single minute of their life, they take it for granted as it goes by on the clock. There are important minutes in people’s lives, the minutes before they walk down the aisle, the minutes when they get to hold their newborn child for the first time, the minutes before big competitions when they take a deep breath and focus on the task at hand.

One minute in which Daniel texts Max to wish him good luck before he puts his phone away to get ready for the upcoming race as well. Less than a minute in which Max sends back blue hearts and tells Daniel to drive safely – as safe as he can, anyway.

Maybe he should have told Max to do the same.

UPS delivers 11,319 packages, 243,000 new photos are posted on Facebook, 5,441,400 pounds of garbage is created around the world, 136,824,000 pounds of carbon dioxide is released in the atmosphere in the matter of a minute, 60 silly seconds, 60 times an hour, 1,440 times a day.

Daniel feels the vibrations of an engine coming alive underneath him, less than a minute until the lights go off and it’s time to deliver. One minute until the importance of every single second becomes present in his mind and focussing is not an option anymore but a demand. One minute is enough to reach the top, enough to fall behind. One minute is enough to fuck up an entire race. It’s then more than anytime else when the matter of a minute becomes clear in Daniel’s mind.

120,000,000 new red blood cells form in his body, he breathes 20 times, 6,000,000 chemical reactions take place in every cell of his body, he has a million thoughts running through his head that are immediately gone once he rounds the next corner, all in the matter of a single minute.

But what can happen in a minute anyway?

31,600 tons of water flows over the Niagara Falls, the sun flings 60,000,000 tons of matter into space, 1,800 stars explode, Daniel’s heart pumps 83 gallons of blood through his body and he can hear it rushing in his ears and it only takes a minute. 60 seconds gone by in 15 to 20 blinks of an average person’s eye.

One minute is enough for someone to confess their love, to come out to their parents, to make a new friend and significant memories. One minute is enough to sign contracts, to come up with ideas for new music, to publish a book, to write a hurtful comment on Instagram.

It’s 60 seconds in which Daniel thinks about the weird feeling in his gut. It’s not the g-forces, it’s not the speed or pretty much anything he’s doing at that moment, it’s not the force he needs to get the brake pressure above 80 percent to get his car to slow down. It’s something else, like a bad foreshadowing of something that’s creeping up to him, something that will leave scars and hurt him badly. He swallows the feeling and overtakes the car in front of him. It doesn’t even take more than a minute.

In a minute, what can happen in a minute anyway?

Someone proposes to the love of their life, someone gets their driving license, someone passes an exam, someone buys their favorite food. In a minute a child can destroy their mother’s favorite salad bowl or a window with a baseball. Someone drinks alcohol for the first time, someone else suffers a relapse. Someone stumbles through the city on drugs, someone else buys their dream car.

A minute is enough to destroy dreams and hopes and enough to make them come true. Someone stands on stage for the first time, someone else for the last time, somewhere a toddler says Papa for the first time. A pet dies, someone kills a mosquito, an avocado goes bad. It only takes a minute.

60 seconds. Daniel remembers watching American football matches where a field goal or a touchdown in the last 60 seconds turned the entire game around, 60 seconds in which someone breaks a record or wins another championship. Someone hugs their parents with tears in their eyes after running fast enough or jumping high enough or cycling far enough to receive a medal.

Somewhere in the world, someone prays for peace while someone else leaves their home country to seek shelter and a better life. Someone blocks a toxic friend on social media.

A minute. Max always claims to need just one more minute in the bathroom in the mornings and ends up running late. It takes him a minute to burn bacon, to rummage around his backpack to find his passport, a single minute to find something to watch on Netflix. Max always knows what he wants to watch, Daniel is fine with everything as long as he gets to watch it with Max in his arms.

It took a minute to shake Max’s hand and introduce himself, a minute to smile at each other and form some sort of connection. It takes a minute to nudge his shoulder against Max’s when he’s sad to make him smile weakly and a minute to hug him to make him feel better. 60 seconds are enough for his heart to skip a beat when Max laughs and smiles at him with bright eyes and excitement.

A lot can happen in a minute.

It took a minute until Max managed to confess his feelings, a minute for him to collect his thoughts and gather all his courage to let his guard down and admit what he feels to Daniel. It took a minute to lay the foundation stone for their relationship.

It takes a minute to wake Max up in the morning, a minute until he stops squirming and complaining. He yawns and smiles tiredly and moves closer to Daniel for extra warmth before they have to get up. It takes a minute for Max to kiss his cheek and wrap his arms around Daniel’s neck when he comes home after not seeing each other for a while. It takes a minute for Max to spot him in a crowd, a minute for him to sense Daniel’s mood and find a way to deal with that, a minute for him to make Daniel laugh so hard that his stomach hurts.

It only takes a single minute.

The sun rises in a minute, golden hues bathing the bedroom in soft light, gently grazing Max’s soft features in the morning when he looks peaceful and content in his sleep. The room is cool and it’s warm underneath the fresh sheets, a white contrast against sun-kissed skin. Max sighs and murmurs incoherent thoughts in Dutch and buries his head in the fluffy pillow, Daniel tells himself that he’s just going back to sleep for one more minute before he gets up.

It takes a minute for the sun to drop behind the horizon, too, when Daniel watches it with Max next to him and two bottles of beer between them. The orange flames in the sky make Max’s skin appear in a warmer tone, his eyes shining with a gentle smile on his face. They don’t talk, they just sit there together and follow their own thoughts. It’s immediately a bit more chilly a minute later. Daniel gets up and gets back inside, Max follows him with his bottle in one hand and his phone in the other. They do it often in the summer months, it only takes a minute.

Somewhere in this world someone fights for their rights, someone has an idea that makes the world a bit better, someone tells someone else their best friend’s secret. Someone gets a scam mail, someone else hacks a computer system. It only takes a minute, a few simple clicks and keystroke combinations.

The apple slices in Daniel’s salad turn brown while somewhere else in the world 55,600 get cut down and 2,000 animals die. It only takes one minute. Daniel has a hard time swallowing his fried chicken.

Someone sprays their name on a wall in ugly letters, someone scores their first goal. A kiss, a handshake, a signature, a hug, an agreement, a small gesture to brighten the day, getting caught cheating, it takes 60 seconds and changes so many things.

But what can happen in a minute anyway?

His heart feels as if it stops in his chest when he hears the words for the first time. It takes a minute to change his entire life, to rip the most precious thing away from him, something he was so sure about is suddenly in danger and when he slows down and the yellow of the flag almost burns in his eyes. Panic tightens his throat and makes breathing hard and he feels numb, far away from everything and outside of his own body, as if he’s not part of this world anymore. It feels like a horrible joke, a nightmare he can’t wake up from and he’s drowning in his own horror.

It takes one minute for Max’s car to get crushed underneath the impact of another vehicle, the mess of dark car parts crumbling against bright red making Daniel’s heart ache and he still doesn’t know entirely what’s going on, no one does, but it hurts to look at it and the panic that’s rushing through his blood makes his body tremble under the pressure. He knows that someone is talking to him on the radio but he can’t identify the voice, can’t untangle the words, can’t find the meaning of them. It’s blurry and Daniel just wants it to be over.

One minute, Max always whines and asks for one more hug and one more kiss and one more quiet love confession whispered against his warm skin before they part ways in the morning and it only takes a minute, one minute that supplies them with enough positive feelings for the day until they meet again at night.

Max’s skin is cold underneath Daniel’s touch now and his skin is a crisp white against the pillow that almost appears to be grey underneath him. White like porcelain, delicate and easily breakable, and Daniel carefully traces his features, avoiding the cuts and bruises and tubes and his skin still feels so soft against Daniel’s fingertips. He holds on to him tightly, almost clinging to Max’s body as if it’s the only thing keeping him afloat, the only thing that saves him from drowning in darkness.

Daniel sobs and his tears stain Max’s hospital gown and he’s supposed to let go, to accept the ugly truth, but he can’t. Daniel can’t understand why this is happening to them, why it can’t be him instead of Max, why the universe is treating him this way. The clock on the wall continues ticking, there’s a traffic jam on the highway of the city, life goes on. His life can’t go on without Max, he can feel the ache in his chest, the emptiness of the space Max occupies with his soft laughs and the warmth he radiates. He can’t be gone, Daniel’s brain can not comprehend that thought, that fact.

He feels no hate towards Charles, who hugs him tightly and cries and they both know that there’s no excuse, no apology, it’s not his fault, it was not his intention, they’ve both dealt with the same horror before, they hold onto each other and cry together and it looks ridiculous but Daniel can’t bring himself to care about irrelevant things like that.

Another minute goes by, Max doesn’t return, Daniel feels cold despite the warm weather outside. He sits on a bench and shakily drinks some of the water that Charles bought for him earlier. He doesn’t want to look at his watch, he’s not interested in any of the minutes he has yet to survive and live through that lay in front of him.

He kicks a loose stone across the path and winces when it collides with a car door and the noise echoes in his brain. When he unlocks his phone the only thing he can click on is the chat from earlier. The blue hearts blur in front of his eyes when more tears well up and he feels tired and alone and this is not how he wanted the day to go. He doesn’t want to live without Max, he can’t even begin to imagine a life without him. It’s cruel and Daniel feels as if someone ripped his heart out and all he can think of is wanting Max back, he’s all Daniel has ever wanted and needed in his life.

It only took a minute to tear down his hopes and plans for the future and it removes another big part of him, his favorite part of himself. It only took a minute to change it all and Daniel knows he won’t ever feel entirely and completely happy when he himself is incomplete.

But what can happen in a minute anyway?


End file.
